Allow Hog 4 PC to bypass Windows Defender when it may not be disabled

Symptoms/Issue

Some organizations must have specific settings required by their IT department that prevent Hog 4 PC from properly working. For best operation High End Systems recommends being the Administrator on the computer and having your Firewall disable as well as your User Account Control Setting set to Never notify. If these settings cannot be done the below Exclusions might help. 

Description/Explanation of Issue

When Windows Defender and a firewall may not be disabled, exclusions and rules may be able to be put in place to allow Hog 4 PC to function properly.

Fix/Solution

1. Windows Defender Exclusions - Defender keeps lists of files and process that it considers exempt from real-time scanning. Add Hog4PC files and executables to both lists.

   1. Click on the Windows button and type “Windows Security” to open the Windows Security app.

   2. Go to “Virus & Threat Protection”

   3. Under the “Virus & threat protection settings” section, click “Manage settings”.

   4. Under the “Exclusions” section, click “Add or remove exclusions”.

   5. If the “Add an exclusion” button is grayed out you don’t have permissions to modify Windows Defender exclusions. You’ll need to contact a network administrator to go any further.

   6. If the Hog4PC exclusions are not already in place, use the “Add an exclusion” button to add each of the required exclusions. When you click the button, a drop-down will allow you to select the exclusion type from “File”, “Folder”, “File type”, or “Process”. Use the following table to add the exclusions selecting the indicated exclusion type and entering the associated exclusion value. Note these values assume you have installed Hog4PC in the default installation location. If you have installed in a different location, you’ll have to modify the values for that location.

2. Firewall Network Connection Rules - Windows Defender firewall maintains rules to allow or block incoming and outgoing connections. Add rules to allow Hog4PC processes to connect to each other over the network.

   1. Click on the Windows button and type “Windows Security” to open the Windows Security app.

   2. Go to “Firewall & network protection”.

   3. Click on “Advanced settings” to open “Windows Defender Firewall with Advanced Security”.

   4. Check the settings in the top-level view of the settings tree. If Defender is configured to block inbound connections that do not match a rule, you will add inbound rules for Hog4PC. If Defender is configured to block outbound connections that do not match a rule, you will add outbound rules for Hog4PC. If Defender is configured to allow connections either outbound or inbound that do not match a rule you will not have to add rules for that section.

   5. To add a rule, select either the Inbound Rules or Outbound Rules section and click “New Rule…” to open the Rule Wizard. You will do this for each Hog4PC executable in the Exclusion Rules table above.

   6. Choose to add a Program rule. Click Next.

   7. Enter the program path (from the table above). Click Next.

   8. Choose to “Allow the connection”. Click Next.

   9. Make sure all network profiles (Domain, Private, Public) are checked. Click Next.

   10. Give the rule a name like “Inbound H4PC Critical Process”. Click Finish.

   11. Repeat these steps for each H4PC process in the table above. Select on the rules after you have entered them and verify that the “protocol” specification for the rule is “any”.

   12. Repeat this process for the other rules section (Inbound or Outbound) as required for your Defender firewall configuration.

Related Links/References